With cinemas dark, David Stratton indulges in cinematic memories
“At the age of 14, by accident, I met and fell in love with Marilyn Monroe”.
With cinemas closed and no new releases to review, I’m plunging back into my cinematic past to remember some of the moments that gave me particular pleasure.
On Saturday April 3, 1954, I fell in love with Marilyn Monroe and it happened quite by chance. I was 14 years old and had been given permission by my parents to cycle the five miles (8km) from my home to the town of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, to go to the movies.
The films I liked best at the time were mainly westerns, but any movie featuring plenty of action was an attraction. I was heading to the Gaumont cinema to see Hell Below Zero, a thriller set in the Antarctic based on a book, The White South, by Hammond Innes, an author whose adventure thrillers I’d enjoyed reading. Hell Below Zero, though a British film, starred American Alan Ladd, who had recently scored a great success in the western, Shane, which I loved.
I arrived at the cinema to discover that although Hell Below Zero was classified “U” by the British Board of Film Censors — meaning that children could attend unaccompanied — the supporting picture, whose title I’ve forgotten, was classified “A”, meaning that children could only attend in the company of an adult. “Adult” was defined as 16 or over.
I’d managed to get into “A” films unaccompanied before, but it took a bit of planning. One way was to loiter outside the cinema and when you saw an adult about to go in, approach them and ask them to take you with them. You would pay for your ticket, of course, but the downside was that you never knew what to expect from an adult stranger. The better option was to bluff your way in. At 14 I felt I was able to pass as 16, but I had to psych myself up first, and on this occasion I hadn’t. So when the woman at the box office asked me my age, I stammered that I was 16. She didn’t believe me and asked me in which year I was born. Maths was never my strong point and, not having prepared for the question, I gave her the wrong answer. No Hell Below Zero for me.
I was thwarted but unwilling to give up my day’s movie-going entirely. There was another cinema in Trowbridge, the Regal, which was just around the corner. I had no idea what was playing but I cycled round to check it out. The film was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a musical-comedy starring the new sensation, Marilyn Monroe. I’d read a great deal about Monroe but had so far not seen any of her films. The movie was classified “A”, but this time I was better prepared and sailed in without difficulty.
In those days screenings were continuous and the feature had already started. As I searched for a seat in the dark, Monroe was singing Bye Bye Baby in that husky, seductive voice of hers — and I was enchanted. When I got home I wrote in my diary that she “was pretty, had nice legs and a nice singing voice”. Not a very perceptive critique, to be sure.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is the story of two girls from Little Rock, one blonde, the other brunette, who are searching for men, preferably millionaires, though Dorothy (Jane Russell) is willing to settle for a “hunk of man”. Much of the action unfolds on an ocean liner sailing from New York to France.
Lorelei (Monroe) is engaged to wealthy but gormless Gus Esmond Jr (Tommy Noonan), whose family has hired a private detective, Ernie Malone (Elliott Reid), to report on her if she misbehaves on board. This doesn’t deter Lorelei who immediately checks out millionaire Henry Spofford III (George “Foghorn” Winslow), who turns out to be a small boy, and the elderly Sir Francis (Piggy) Beekman (Charles Coburn), who proves susceptible to her charms. Dorothy, meanwhile, after dallying with members of the US Olympics team (a wonderful sequence in which she sings Ain’t There Anyone Here For Love?), falls for Ernie, unaware of his profession.
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This slim narrative started life as a hugely popular book by Anita Loos; written in 1925, it defined the flapper era and was transformed into a successful play. In 1949 it underwent a further transformation as a stage musical, with Carol Channing as Lorelei, and was a sensation; Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend was the showstopper, and it’s equally electrifying in the movie version as performed by Monroe.
The director of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was Howard Hawks, a veteran of the silent era and an all-round professional who was equally adept at westerns (Red River, Rio Bravo), thrillers (The Big Sleep) and comedies (Bringing Up Baby, Monkey Business).
Though not one of his best films, it’s a colourful and frequently delightful showcase for its two female stars — the men pale by comparison. To her credit, Russell, who was a bigger name at the time and is billed above Monroe in the credits, is not overshadowed by her scene-stealing co-star. Todd McCarthy’s excellent book on Hawks (The Grey Fox of Hollywood) reveals the director had great difficulty working with Monroe and that Russell was often able to help him to get his instructions through to the unreliable superstar.
Of course, I knew none of this on that April day in 1954. I cycled home somewhat overwhelmed by the music and colour and sexiness of the film I’d just unexpectedly seen. I’ve seen it many times since and, with all its flaws, I love every minute of it. There are a couple of postscripts. I eventually saw Hell Below Zero five years later. I was impressed by the location shooting, and by the character of the villain, played by Stanley Baker, but otherwise found it a bit insipid.
Then, in 1970, when I was a guest of the San Francisco Film Festival, I was invited to “brunch” with Jane Russell. Long retired from the movies, Russell was a gracious hostess but I gained from her the impression she and Monroe had been far from close. Two years later, also in San Francisco, I met with and interviewed Howard Hawks, who provided some further insights into the film that had, in some way, changed my life when I was 14 years old.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is streaming on YouTube and Microsoft.